HISTORY COLUMN - Study of conflict shows power of human spirit

Saturday

Jun 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMJun 28, 2008 at 11:58 PM

The great trap in being a military historian is that, the longer you study the men who formed the armies which fought the battles and eventually won or lost the wars, the more you become convinced that, no matter how right or wrong, war is the ultimate sadness that can occur in a society. However, in spite of the grim statistics of loss, the study of conflict also shows the great power of the human spirit in the sacrifice that soldiers, sailors and airmen will make for each other and their country.

Chris Kleinjans

The great trap in being a military historian is that, the longer you study the men who formed the armies which fought the battles and eventually won or lost the wars, the more you become convinced that, no matter how right or wrong, war is the ultimate sadness that can occur in a society. However, in spite of the grim statistics of loss, the study of conflict also shows the great power of the human spirit in the sacrifice that soldiers, sailors and airmen will make for each other and their country.

The second Indochina war, known in this country as the Vietnam War, still inspires great emotional response from those who lived through it. Regardless of their feelings about the war, men and women from the Holland area served, fought and died far away from home, in a country many knew little about, for a cause that some feel lacked definition and an easily accounted end.

For the past two years I have been researching the life and death of one of those men who grew up in Holland. Gordon Douglas Yntema was one of only two area men who earned our nation’s highest military honor for their actions in Vietnam, the Congressional Medal of Honor. (The second was Staff Sgt. Paul Lambers.)

The Congressional Medal of Honor is not a medal given lightly. To earn it, a soldier must have performed an act of valor far outside the scope of what could be considered normal bravery during wartime. While most communities of our size would be proud to have one Medal of Honor recipient, Holland was home to an unprecedented four men who received this award for their heroism in three wars, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

One of these four men was Sgt. Gordon D. Yntema. While serving in Special Forces Detachment A-341 in Kien Phong Province, Vietnam, Yntema performed such an act of valor, which, though it cost him his life, was considered so exemplary that on Nov. 18, 1969, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

While researching Yntema’s military career, I have repeatedly wondered what compelled him and the others to make the choices they did. What made Gordon stay in this battle outside the small village of Bihn Thong along with the South Vietnamese officer commanding the operation after his fellow teammate Sgt. Kaliekini had been seriously wounded? Why did he continue to hold after the indigenous troops he was advising had been killed, wounded or scattered by a mortar attack? And how, with his ammunition exhausted and surrounded by the enemy, did he make the decision to charge at his captors, using his empty rifle as a club?

While searching for the motivations of a man I never met, who was killed in action before I was even born, I discovered a letter written by Yntema in response to a letter he had received from Kitty Teller, then a 13-year-old girl living in Holland. The letter was published in The Holland Sentinel on Feb. 3, 1968, two weeks after his death. Written on New Year’s Day, 1968, Yntema’s letter sums up his feelings regarding the meaning of freedom and why some men are willing to fight and die so that others can be afforded the opportunity to make the kinds of choices we take for granted.
Regardless of one’s opinion about this war, or any war for that matter, we should never forget to acknowledge the feelings of the soldiers who bear the burden.

Hi Kitty,

Thank you for your letter. You are right; soldiers do like to receive mail. Especially letters such as yours.
I’ll tell you something about myself. I have been in the army for the past five years. I have been assigned to the Special Forces for the past two years. Oh yes, I’m 22 years old. I don’t know if you know anything about the Special Forces, so I shall try to explain. A-431 is an operational detachment composed of twelve men. My job is intelligence. Each of the other men in the detachment has a job that he is a specialist in. Our detachment is assigned to the delta region. Our base is about one mile from Cambodia, southwest of Saigon. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific.
Now I shall try to answer your questions the best I can. “What’s it like?” The first thing that comes to my mind when you ask this question is many long hours and a lot of hard work. Sometimes very discouraging. But progress is being made and when this is noted the work seems worth it. And one must remember that there is a mission to accomplish. Many men on this team have lost their lives trying to accomplish this mission and more lives will be lost in the process. Freedom is not an easy thing to gain. Once you have fought for it and won it you must continue to fight to keep it. One must never take it for granted. Each person on earth is entitled to it. South Vietnam has asked for our help to fight a common enemy, which is Communism, and we will help them until they have their freedom. I imagine that some of this letter is very hard to understand, but I find it very hard to write down my thoughts and feelings. If you want to, you can look up two words in the dictionary that may possibly help you understand what we’re fighting for. These two words are “freedom” and “liberty.”
Well, Happy New Year! Once again, thank you for your letter. Looking forward to hearing from you again.

Sincerely,

Sgt. Gordon D. Yntema

Any person who knew Gordon Yntema during his time in Holland and would consent to being interviewed for research purposes, is asked to contact Chris Kleinjans at The Holland Museum; jkleinjans@hollandmuseum.org.

To learn more about all four Holland area Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, visit The Holland Museum, 31 W. 10th St.. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except Sunday 2 to 5 p.m. and closed on Tuesdays.

For more information, call (616) 392-9084 or visit www.hollandmuseum.org

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